NATO

Iran has already contributed to progress in Iraq by agreeing to the removal of Nouri al-Maliki, the divisive Shiite partisan who was prime minister. Iran now must support an inclusive Iraqi regime that gives full rights and opportunities to the Sunnis within Iraq, with a U.S.-supported and reinforced Iraqi military, to keep the ISIL threat from moving directly to Iran’s borders.

WASHINGTON — Whenever I tell Americans that I’ve just moved here from Russia, I get a barrage of questions: “How do you folks survive?” “Why is Putin doing this?” “Why haven’t you stopped him?”

Then there are the dubious historical parallels (Vladimir Putin’s Russia is like Hitler’s Germany in the 1930s); and sometimes more thoughtful ones (Russia is like Mexico at the turn of the 19th century, when the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz brought stability and economic growth to a chaotic land). Whatever the case, the emotions — ranging from disbelief to anger — are always strong.

President Obama said that NATO is prepared to combat the threat from ISIS on Friday. Rep. Ed Royce and Jill Dougherty talk about what the strategy for defeating ISIS might look like and whether Turkey and other countries in the Middle East will be committed to the fight.

The lordly Celtic Manor, a Welsh spa and golf resort down the road from Cardiff, will play host this week to a NATO summit of sixty world leaders. It may be the most important such meeting since the organization—the world’s mightiest military alliance—was created, in 1949. And it may determine what the United States does next on a trifecta of particularly troubling crises.

In the late 1970s, new generations of nuclear missile delivery systems were proposed for deployment across Eastern and Western Europe. The ensuing controversy over their deployment grew into a key phase in the later years of the Cold War. The Euromissile Crisis and the End of the Cold War explores the origins, unfolding, and consequences of that crisis.

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has resulted in much discussion of European Security and whether or not current arrangements and resources are adequate to deter threats. While much of the discussion has focused on NATO, former President of Finland, Martti Ahtissari, spoke to us about a more holistic view of how security is achieved and maintained.

The transcript of the Global Europe Program’s June 16, 2014, event “Mutual Security on Hold? Russia, the West, and European Security Architecture,” is now available. The discussion focused on the challenges facing mutual security, particularly the transatlantic relationship, in the wake of the crisis with Ukraine and Russia.

Some have described Russia’s aggression in Ukraine as a “wake up call” for NATO. In this Context interview, former Prime Minister of Poland and a former Russian Foreign Minister offer their perspectives on the past, present, and future of European security and the NATO alliance.

This year, the Munich Security Conference celebrated its 50th anniversary. These fifty years of substantive dialogue on security cooperation have existed against a changing political backdrop – from the tensions of the Cold War and the brutal conflict in the Western Balkans, to the attacks of September 11, 2001, the subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the global “War on Terror.” Mutual security and the transatlantic relationship are once again faced with challenges in the form of the crisis in Ukraine.

The Wilson Center, chartered by Congress as the living memorial to President Woodrow Wilson, is the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum. In tackling global issues through independent research and open dialogue, the Center informs actionable ideas for Congress, the administration, and the broader policy community.